Wednesday, November 4, 2009

This is the end. The END.

Rob and I have been back in the states for about 3 months now and have compiling this list for awhile. We might keep adding on to it as time as goes on. We have truly enjoyed our experience as expats and wouldn't have changed a thing. In summary this blog has been an outlet for us. We were able to record our experiences, share our stories, and share our pictures. Thank you for reading. I am very much a list person and hopefully this list will encompase what we miss . . .

Why we loved Geneva . . .

1. Asking for the bill. No push or rush to leave the table.
2. Fresh foods. Less processed packaged stuff. Farmer's markets close and abundant.
3. Clean yummy cold tapwater
4. Fresh baked bread from the Migros bakery everyday.
5. Walkable. Didn't take long to get anywhere.
6. Small tips. Servers on salary and not making their living off of tips.
7. Public transportation. We could both have beer out and not worry about who was driving us home!
8. Farmer's markets and locally grown foods. We will forever miss Ferney's Saturday morning market.
9. Yummy dairy. Cheese!
10. Well trained drivers and parallel parkers.
11. Small streets. Max 3 lanes.
12. Well connected to the rest of Europe. Feeling like we could be somewhere fun within minutes.
13. We miss not being able to understand everything. The mystery in language is gone. It was blissfull not knowing what everyone was saying.
13. . . . will continue to add to this list as time goes on . . .


What we will not miss in Geneva . . .

1. SMOKERS
2. No free refills or ice
3. Too much pocket change
4. Expensive food when eating out.
5. "Hoarding at boarding". The idea that there is NO line when embarking on a plane or bus.
6. No Queue's and constant cutting in lines. Excuse me? I was here WAY longer then you. This goes along with . . .
7. Little consideration for others. Everywhere in the world has these types of people, but I seemed to notice them more here.
8. Lack of hot sauces and condiments.
9. Authoritarian assholes at the borders. This is a LONG story.
10. Lack of fountain sodas.
11. Lack of toilet seat covers. The spray to wipe the seat doesn't do it for me.
12. Impatient drivers. I'm sorry I didn't accelerate fast enough for you to the next red light.


Merci bou coup to all the followers this year! Especially to the other swiss expats and our family! Our adventure is over and life will move on in the states. We'll probably start a new blog eventually, but right now, things are too busy. Lots of Hugs! Au Revoir!

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Saturday, August 22, 2009

Home

Just a quick update ~ we are home in California after our 3 week excursion. I have a lot of blogging and catching up to do about our adventures and will try to get it done in the next few weeks. For now, we are recovering from jetlag and looking forward to resettling our lives here. It's been a great year and I am definitely compiling the lists to create and "end all be all" post to wrap this expat blog up.

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Monday, August 17, 2009

Last Beers in Geneva

All good things must come to an end. Here are the last beers we had the pleasure of trying in Geneva. Don't fret, the beer adventures are continuing, just not in Switzerland!



The Physics - How could Rob resist trying this one? We picked it up in London and tried it our last night in our apartment. It was really quite yummy! An amber ale brewed by Brewdog of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 5%


Alpenbier - A swiss beer brewed by Brauerei Rosengarten in Einsiedeln, Swizterland. A German style pilsner. This one is hard to find any info in English about it! So I don't remember the percentage alcohol!


La Torpille - Brewed by Brasserie Des Franches-Montagnes in Switzerland. It's a dark strong belgian style ale at 7.5%. Dark and Delicious!

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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Gambas A Go Go!

We discovered this little place just a little too late in our adventure . . . or just in time for our cholesterol levels. Right around the corner from our Geneva apartment is a place that served "Gambas-a-go-go", meaning all you can eat shrimp!!! Yummy! It is a little pricet at 39 CHF per person but it is all you can eat. A salad and fries are included, but the real star is the huge shrimp cooked perfectly in a garlic butter sauce. It's impossible to eat these things without getting your fingers a mess, but the taste is so worth it. It's quite funny to see Europeans who hardly ever eat with their hands dig in and get messy. We ate here our last night in Geneva and took J&C back when they dropped us off after our 2 weeks together. It's a lot of shrimp! And you can keep asking for more!


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Our last days in Geneva

I can't believe it actually happened. I never thought the time would fly by so fast. I can remember the days when I wish it was going faster! We have spent 10 months here and are ready to go home! We moved out of our apartment and stored all of our stuff in a friend's cave. We are now traveling like regular people and living out of a suitcase and hotels. No more "home" base to go back to. We are ending our time in Europe with 3 weeks of traveling. The first two we spent with John & Christina and the 3rd is starting tomorrow in Marrakech, Morocco. We are landing back in San Francisco on Friday! Coming home means facing reality and job searching. but we are ready and excited to do it!

Here are some pictures from our last nights in Geneva and the start of the big festival around the lake, "Fetes De Geneve". I'll try to get some pictures up from places we visited in the last couple weeks . . . like Pompeii, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, and Provence!

West Side of Geneva during Fete!


Harbor at night during Fete


Our last night in Geneva!


Mont Blanc was sooooo pretty this day.


Jet D'Eau - The iconic symbol of Geneva

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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Loss of a friend. Goodbye Danny.



Logging on to facebook yesterday morning I was shocked to see my old fraternity brothers updating their status messages with "RIP Danny". What in the world has happened? More details were revealed slowly and I found myself glued to the computer to try to find out more. Danny died in a car crash off the 405 at 2:30 AM. What a tradgedy.

I met Danny freshman year in the dorms and he was always so kind to everyone there. He worked at the front desk and I dated his roommate. He decorated his dorm room with huge pictures of Shakira and Janet Jackson. Our friendship grew as I became a brother of APX the next year. He was always the life of the party. Dancing, singing, and mixing drinks for everyone. He was always the first to show up and help out and was a great listener when you had a gripe that needed to be heard. We became roommates my 4th and 5th year and we always had lots of fun on the trampoline. I will always remember him cooking up plantains and warming corn tortillas.

I'm not sure how I feel. Being here has already put me at a distance from everyone and everything. I'm not connected like I used to be. I feel grief for sure but it reality hasn't sunken in yet. Did it really happen? How is this going to change things? I do know that I got the pleasure of knowing somebody with a warm heart and I will cherish the memories we had together. I just want to hug everyone who is grieving and tell them I understand. I want to share stories of the good times to honor his life. I feel like his life just ended way way way too soon. He never got to experience some of the greatest pleasures in life, and for that I feel terrible.

Now, I don't believe in an afterlife and I think prayers are useless. But whatever helps people be comforted I am all for. I take comfort in knowing that he can never be erased in the history of time. He will always have been there and touched so many hearts.



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Our newest Entrepreneur




Laura is the 115th entrepreneur we have helped support around the world. Sounds like fun doesn't it? Get started yourself and support other entrepreneur's at ~ kiva.org! Microfinance helps lead people out of poverty.

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Swiss Beers From Globus

I realized time was running out in Switzerland and that we would be moving out of Geneva really soon. Keeping this in mind at the Globus market, I picked up these two swiss micro-brews that promised big things but delivered a little flat.

La Cuivrée
Brewed By Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes, Jura Switzerland
Unfiltered Euro Style Pale Lager - 5.2%
I am guessing this isn't the brewery's best work. But I am eager to try other examples!



La Fraîcheur
Brewed By Brasserie Trois Dames - 4.6%
Wheat Beer. Citrusy with Coriander Smells.
It was terrible. Definitely an acquired taste.

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

London Beers Are Falling Down ... Falling Down (Uh... I mean Bridge)

While consuming onion rings at the London Pub "Green Man Porter"we had to have some beer to wash down the greasiness. (This was all Tami's idea btw). London has a rich beer tradition and we wanted to sample some cask ale's while we were at it. A cask ale is - "Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned (includingsecondary fermentation) and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure."

Bulmer's Cider. Original & Pear Flavored.
I know, I know it's not beer. But England has great not super sweet cider's too!

Adnams Broadside.
Brewed by Sole Bay Brewery UL. Dark Bitter Cask Ale - 4.7%
Mellow yet lightly sour. Medium roasted malts.

Forgot to take a picture of this one till the very end.
Marston's Pedigree
Cask Ale - 4.5%
More sour and bitter then the Broadside.

Fuller's London Pride
Brewed By Fuller Smith & Turner - 4.7%

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Monday, July 27, 2009

London Weekend In Brief

Here's what we did in London in brief bullet points:

- Found our way from Gatwick airport, not via Gatwick Express. Via local trains and a couple tube lines.
- Ate lots of food. Whoever thinks England has bad food, doesn't know what they are talking about. Ate full veggie english breakfasts, red veg vegetarian fast food, wagamama, dim sum, smoothies, bangers & mash, fish & chips, and lots of beer.
- Borough Market and Camden Town Markets.
- Went shopping down Oxford Street.
- Went to two of the oldest pubs in England.
- Saw broadway show Ave Q with last minute tickets! Hung out at Piccadilly Circus to see if we ran into anybody we knew.
- Ran thru the airport, cut thru security (it wasn't easy to convince people!), and hightailed it to the gate.
- Relaxed and enjoyed the hotel room and watching the construction right outside our window.
- Didn't do any sight seeing touristy stuff since we have already done it all there. Rick & Tami did the hop on hop off tour bus thing before we met up with them.

I didn't take a lot of pictures.

Full English Veggie Breakfast + Toast


Borough Market


These "Luxury" English Muffins Look Amazing

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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Health Care & Insurance Debate

There is a huge debate going on back home about health care and how the whole system is running. Here are my simple points I would like to make.

1. The US system IS NOT the best in the world. It is not the best in mortality rates, life spans, and access to doctors. Nay sayers are trying to SCARE you into thinking that you won't get good health care. That is blatantly false.

2. Lots of people are uninsured. Not just the lower class. So when these people get sick, it costs ALL of us.

3. I would much much much rather have a government employee who has nothing to gain from denying me care approving what my doctors do then some insurance company employee who will get a bonus if I don't get my procedure. FOR PROFIT health care simply doesn't work.

4. Health care costs are increasing. It's a reality. We pay 3 times as much for the EXACT same treatments then other people under a national health care plan.

5. A nationalized system would keep costs under check. Competition is key.

6. People get denied health care ALL the time now. Once again, nay-sayers are trying to SCARE you that you won't get a procedure you need under nationalized health care. The reality is, you will denied NOW under the CURRENT system if the insurance company stands to make a buck.

7. There are simply too many loopholes now for insurance companies to deny you coverage. Pre-existing condition anyone? Everyone has one. Ever been to the doctor? They may count it as a possible pre-existing condition. Even if you are granted coverage, if they find out ONE doctor visit you forgot about when filling out the paperwork, they could deny you coverage and claim you lied about preexisting conditions. Does that seem like a system that is working well?

8. If you want to check out some nationalized health care systems of the world, try looking outside Canada and the UK. The Swiss have a great system and so does Taiwan. Don't let another language stop you from informing yourself.

9. Did you realize people are AFRAID of traveling to the US because our health care system is so bad? Silly yes, but the stigma is there. You don't get bad stigma's from having a perfect system.

The whole point is, the system needs to change. And why not now? Don't be scared to work towards the future!

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Saturday, July 18, 2009

Brasserie Du Mont Blanc - La Blonde

Driving back from Florence was a grueling drive. 6 hours in the car isn't programmed into my "routine" driving anymore like it is in CA. We just went thru the tunnel for the last time this year (tear) and stopped for gas. We treated ourselves and bought this beer at the gas station. Don't worry Mom & Dad, we waited till we got home to drink it. It is always so funny how Europeans drink beer during breaks at rest-stops and that beer and booze is even sold there! Oh well, we were thankful to pick up this gem of a beer. The water in it comes directly from the glacier that is melting off Mont Blanc! Yummy!



Brasserie Du Mont Blanc - La Blonde
5.8% Belgian Ale
Brewed by Brasserie Du Mont Blanc in Les Houches, France.
Me like a French beer? Yes indeed!

Something on the internet about this beer:

The Water is particularly pure, consisting of rainwater and snow-melt transformed into ice and filtered over several hundreds of metres through morainic sand and gravel. The role the water purity plays cannot be underestimated, it allows all the ingredients to come into their own.

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Friday, July 17, 2009

Pinkus Hefeweizen

The key to successful travel is research research research. The more places you write down where to eat and what to do, the more time you have while actually on vacation to enjoy instead of compromising between McDonald's and a tourist trap with a plastic menu. (Been there, done that). For my recently completely vegetarian inlaw's and long time pescatarian hubby I looked up a place called "Il Vegetariano" in Florence. It was a self serve place that had FABULOUS food! So great, we ate there twice. The mushroom soup and the carrot soups were out of this world and the salad's weren't shabby either. It was nice to see refreshing healthy food in front of us rather then cheese laden greasy pizzas. Here's what we washed down the meal with:


Pinkus Hefeweizen
Organic German Hefe enojoyed at Il Vegetariano in Florence
5.10% brewed by Brauereu Pinkus Muelle

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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Feldschlösschen Urtrüb

Feldschlösschen Urtrüb
Enjoyed with Rösti in the Bernese Oberland
Brewed by Carlsberg in Rheinfelden, Switzerland
5% - Yummy Amber Color, Light Body with Caramel Notes.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Selling the Green Machine

In case there is any interest in the blogosphere about our pursuit to sell our car . . . email me if interested!


Mercedes Benz A160 Elegance -- Automatic Clutch -- 6750 CHF

Mercedes Benz A160 Elegance
First Matriculation: Oct '98
Mileage: 127,000 km
Comparis Target Price: 7775 CHF
My Asking Price: 6750 CHF

This is a wonderful little 5 door (4 doors plus hatchback) car with plenty of room to take a long road trip with 4 people plus a bit of luggage (we've done it several times).

This car has an automatic clutch. Essentially it has a completely standard manual gear box, but the car does the clutch work for you. It's a nice compromise between getting an automatic and a manual. Very easy to learn if you are unfamiliar with manual transmissions, but also satisfying if you are used to manual transmissions and don't like automatics.

Features include:
Automatic Clutch w/ Manual Transmission
Stability Control
Climate Control
Heated Mirrors
CD Player
Power Steering / Windows / Locks
Carphone (I'll remove it if you don't want it!)

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Rick & Tami Visit - Part 1

Rob's parents have come to visit and we have been running around seeing as much as we can with them. We did a few new things and a few old things but had fun relaxing and enjoying no matter where we were.

The trip started with them landing in Geneva and helping them recover from jetlag. Our advice on jetlag is to stay up till normal bedtime, eat meals even if your not hungry at the appropriate time for your new time zone, and take melatonin to keep you asleep thru the entire night.

Saturday we headed to Chamonix and to take the tele-cabin up to the Mont Blanc viewing station. It is kinda cloudy but the wind didn't stop the tele-cabin from going to the top. It's a little pricey (40 euro) for a round trip, but totally worth it. There is a mid way station on the way up that we stopped at for our packed picnic lunch. It was simply serene. Being above the tree line, watching brave soles ice climb the glaciers with their heavy gear, and me enjoying the cold wind on my bare legs since I foolishly decided to wear shorts! It was warm at the bottom, but chilly at the top.

At the top station overlooking Mont Blanc

Lunchtime Picnic Serenity


We then drove thru the alps and made our way to the Oberland. We stayed at the all famous mountain hostel and had to endure the youthful folks and a dorm bed environment. We weren't sure if Rick and Tami would be up for it, but they were troopers, and it was only for one night. We ate some wonderful traditional rosti and drank beers. The next day we saw the Trummelbach Falls again and headed back to Geneva with a quick lunch stop thru Bern.


Tami @ Mountain Hostel

We relaxed and enjoyed Geneva at a leisurely pace the next few days before we took off to the Cinque Terre. Our second time there and ended up staying in an apartment just one entrance away from our last place. We did a lot of the same stuff and enjoyed eating fantastic Liguirian cuisine.


Lazy Relaxed Full of Stairs Cinque Terre


It was then off to Florence to take in some famous Gelato at Vivoli and climb the Duomo steps. We decided to explore separately on these days so we all didn't have to do the same things. Plus it would be a great warmup for Tami & Rick to explore Rome together this week without us as tour guides. Rob and I drove back to Geneva on Monday morning and fly out to meet them in London this Thursday for part 2 our their visit. It has been lots of fun to have them here and getting to share our European experience with them. They got to appreciate for themselves how much I loathe doing laundry here!

Florence


To see the rest of my pictures from Part 1 ~ Click Here!

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Did you know that in Switzerland . . .

Did you know that in Switzerland . . . assisted suicide is legal? The swiss has some crazy laws and fines, but they have it right on this one. Don't invade in other's people lives. If they want to end their life, let them. It is nobodies business but the individual.

Here's the NYTimes article about a couple who had to flee to Zurich to end their life together. Rob sent it to me and of course it made me cry. I am not exactly sure why it made me sob like a baby. Maybe it was because it was sweet and sad at the same time? I'm not sure I fully agree with their decisions but I respect that it was their decision to make. There are a lot of complicated issues that come with assisted suicide laws including whether somebody is mentally stable enough to make the decision or not, or does somebody have to be deemed terminally ill to have the right? It may be extremely complicated, but the system the US/UK have in place now (with exception of one state) burdens the life of so many who have a wish to end their existence. Something needs to change. It's an extremely hard topic of conversation but the conversation is but necessary.

One of the commenters on the article said this which I fully agree with, "It's the same people who would shout that the unborn have a right to live that shout that the living have no right to die."

This was kind of a downer post, huh?

More Information & Research . . .

Here's another article from Times Magazine . . .

Another quote on the opposition side - Gordon Brown UK Prime Minister, " I believe that it’s necessary to ensure that there is a never a case in the country where a sick or elderly person feels under pressure to agree to an assisted death or somehow feels it’s the expected thing to do. That’s why I’ve always opposed legislation for assisted deaths.”

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Not Much Blogging Lately - I'll Catch Up Tomorrow!

Haven't posted in about a week and a half. Sorry!

I'll catch up soon. Tami & Rick (my inlaw's / Rob's parents) are in town and we have been running all over the place. We have a few days of break from traveling with them and I am going to try to make the best of them. We've been back to the Oberland, Cinque Terre, and Florence with them. On thursday we meet up on London. Right after that we have two weeks to pack up our apartment and then 2.5 more weeks of travel before we are home for good! It's getting hard to believe that our European adventure is coming to a close. It really flew by! Especially since we decided to cut it a couple months short then we originally thought!

Anyway, just wanted to shout (type) a quick hi to the blogosphere out there! Lots of beer tales and travel tales to come this week!

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Friday, July 3, 2009

Sunflower Fields & Jessica & Jace Visit!

I better catch up with my blogging! Jessica posted her story about visiting Geneva this past weekend and I just have a couple pics to share! Jessica & Jace were fun to hang out with, show around, and super flexible about not finding escargot!

Before they got to the train station, Rob and I spent time out by the sunflower fields that are blooming by CERN. They weren't completely open yet, but was still so amazingly beautiful.

Here's some pics from the weekend!

Sunflowers & The Globe at CERN


BBzzzzz


Jet D'Eau


Jessica does not know I took this picture of her taking a picture of the ducks :)


J & J !

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

BBQ "Chicken" Pizza & Leffe Tripel

I have been a bit of a mini pizza kick lately and been trying to incorporate more of the fake meat products I find at the Migros. This recipe uses the fake chicken bits by the company Quorn. I have also been trying to use up our imported products like the BBQ sauce we bought in Manhattan. This recipe is simple and delicious and completely made in the toaster oven and stovetop.

Ingredients Assembled and Ready To Go

Ingredients:

Quantities and Measurements for these items are all up to your tastes!

1. Pre Made Pizza Dough ~ or if you have the time you can make it from scratch.
2. Fake Chicken (or real chicken cooked thru on the stovetop)
3. Red Onions for Caramelizing
4. Mozzarella
5. BBQ Sauce of your choosing
6. Fresh Cilantro or Coriander, chopped. This is a key ingredient to the flavor!

(Ignore the tomatoes ~ I didn't end up using them, but you can if you wish)

Directions:

1. Slice and caramelize red onions. This will take awhile so you want to get it started before anything else. Also, if your using real chicken, it would be a great time to sauté them. Bonus: you could marinate real chicken and bbq them on a grill for a smokey flavor. You could also use leftover BBQ chicken for this easy pizza.

2. Cut dough into rounds and par-bake; aka half bake.

3. Mix "chicken" bits with BBQ sauce

4. Spread BBQ Sauce like you would a pizza sauce on rounds

5. Top with caramelized onions

6. Top with "chicken" mixture

7. Top with mozzarella slices

8. Tope with cilantro and dab more BBQ sauce on top

9. Bake till it looks like melty goodness. Enjoy with a nice cold beer! My choice was Belgium Leffe Tripel!


Before they went into the oven


Post Oven Gooey-Goodness


BBQ and Pizza enjoyed with Leffe Tripel
Tripel Style, 8.1%
Brewed by Abbey De Leffe in Belgium

We have previously tried another style from Leffe, and really enjoyed this one. Leffe is readily available in lots of stores all over the US, CoOp's in CH, and E'LECLERC stores on the French side of the border.

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Super Bock

The mainstream everyday beer of Portugal. Available at almost every establishment.
Brewed By Unicer
We tried the Classic 5.6% and Stout 5% Varieties.
The stout had an interesting sour note to it and the classic was a lager and very drinkable.

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German Bio Beer in Portugal

We ate lunch in Lisbon at a vegetarian place in the downtown area called MegaVega. Rob had a beer and it was all organic. Actually, almost everything in that place was organic. I have never eaten so many edible flowers on my salad, but that's another story.

Neumarkter Lammsbrau Edel Pils
German Organic Pilsner 4.8%

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Lisbon, Portugal

The number of weekend's we have left open in Europe is winding down. This past one we spent in Lisbon, Portugal. We took the low cost carrier Easyjet which offers pretty cheap airfare but with less service and organization then Southwest. There were boarding groups "Easy Boarding", "A", and "B". But there were no lines or signs to indicate where you should stand. A general observation is that most Europeans don't seem to grasp the concept of a queue. Every situation we have been in that it would have been polite to stand in line, people rush in a crowd with no organization and try to take the best of what they can get. It was aggravating to say the least. There are no assigned seats so it was first come first serve.

Once in Portugal, we discovered that our bank back home had shut off our bank cards and there was no hope for reactivation. We literally had 30 euros in our wallets so we spent several hours in the airport after we landed on Skype, the internet, and at Western Union. Rob's dad helped us out and we finally got money for the weekend. The weekend was off to a rough start.

We had read about taxi drivers scamming tourists so we decided to buy a taxi voucher at the information booth at the airport. She warned us it might be 5 euros more then the regular rate of a taxi, but we bought it anyway. We are glad we did since our B&B was hard to find in the Bairro Alto district of town and the driver had to ask a couple of other taxi drivers and locals how to get there. I couldn't imagine trying to explain this to him without the voucher lady at the airport helping us out. We did find out though on our taxi ride back to the airport to leave that we paid almost twice as much then the actual cab far would have been. 10 Euros compared to 20 Euros.

We were very pleasantly surprised at the niceness of the bed and breakfast! It was a 7 room place decorated very modern. It was run by Alex and Vasco and their adopted 8 month old son (from the states!) Edgar. They had 3 sweet dogs running around the place who listened well and were very friendly to pet. The breakfast was the best euro style breakfast I have ever had. The bread was nice and fresh and the preserves were home made. I also think the OJ was fresh squeezed! If you are ever in Lisbon, you have to stay here! Casa De Bairro. They have only been open for 2 months but have skyrocketed to 2nd place in Trip Advisor. Our air conditioning was on the fritz, but we had been warned before we stayed and received a discount rate for putting up with it.

We took it easy in Lisbon and didn't try to run around and see everything we could and just tried to stay cool. It was 36 C most of the weekend so we actively tried to walk on the shaded sides of streets and took many breaks. We saw a lot of sights including the downtown area, the castle, bairro alto, chiado, maritime museum, jeronimos monastery, santa justa elevator, had custard tarts in belem, and drank lots of port at the port wine institute.


If you are planning a trip we recommend the following:

1. The port wine institute where we sampled fantastic white ports, tawny's, and ruby's. We were also introduced to as yummy creamy sheep's milk cheese.
2. Taking the ferry across the river to Caclihas and having some authentic Portuguese seafood. The ferry only cost 4 Euros for two round trip tickets. We didn't try the Caracois but many people were eating them.

Santa Justa Elevator - connecting the downtown to Bairro Alto

Classic Tiled Building

At the maritime museum. A royal barge.

White Sangria

Special Rice with Fish - YUMMY

Typical Street with a yellow tram

View from park at the top of the hill from our B&B. See the "golden gate" behind?

Port Wine Institute with a Tawny from 1980.

Antiga Confeitaria de Belem - Custard Tarts Since 1841!!!

Jeronimos Monastery - There was a wedding going on inside!


For the rest of our pictures.... click here.

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About This Blog

Tina & Rob have relocated their lives to Geneva, Switzerland. This blog is a story of their adventure during the year and all the details inbetween.

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